Xibei San Ma

The Xibei San Ma, meaning the Three Mas of the Northwest, was a Hui Chinese dynasty of warlords which ruled Qinghai, Gansu, and Ningxia in northern China from 1911 to 1949. The "Three Mas" were Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui, and Ma Hongbin, who were Hui Muslim warlords. In 1928, the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek pacified the Ma clique during his Northern Expedition, and the Ma clique would be loyal to the Republic of China until the fall of China to the communists in 1949.